1.17.2011

Fernvale Community Church

Fernvale Community Church



    I wonder how many details of this wedding we will have known all along that I misplace and have to be led back to? I bet there is an easier way- like listening to Jesus the first time and staying true to who we are, the dreams we’ve had and the road we’ve walked... For years we have said we were going to have our wedding at the little Fernvale church. It’s historic, sadly not the building anymore, that was destroyed by a tornado- it’s a new building now, rebuilt by a miracle of God- but it’s historic to us, to our story.

  Years ago when we were still so lost, when the world we had chosen to live in was crashing down around us, the Lord started to break open my heart to make room for Himself. In the year or more before Micah and I were calling it quits and separated unto divorce, something weird started to happen. I didn’t want to admit it and I fought it all the way but when ever I would drive past the Fernvale church my heart would swoon. I could not control it and it made me so MAD! I would shake my fist at God and that church and yell “oh no, not you Jesus”.  I did not tell anyone and I just kept yelling and shaking my fist every time I drove by. I have thought since, how strange I must have looked to anyone who was inside and saw me every day- “oh there goes that crazy lady shaking her fist at us again”. I remember the few times that I drove by and nothing happened in my heart- even as the “HA!” was coming out of my mouth- my heart ached. That REALLY made me mad- I actually missed the swoon..?... those were the beginnings of the cracks in my wall.

  After we fell in love with Jesus, that church was forever sealed in my heart. Then when I drove by it was a reminder, an Ebenezer, of His wooing. It was so sweet to drive by the tiny historic church in the valley that the Lord had used to draw me to Him.


   On February 5, 2008 a tornado raged through our valley. As we hid under our house, under a layer of prayer that we could almost touch and under our massive dogs who laid on top of us as the tornado hit, the sweet 120 yr old church was being swept away. Our hearts broke as we saw that the only thing left was the front step and the sign.  Yet from the backseat I heard Teagen gasp and say “ Look what the Lord spared us from”. Our hearts filled with gratitude and sorrow. The community mourned, and celebrated- for as brutishly as that wind tore through our valley leaving trees, cars, homes and the little church ripped up, flattened and fallen in a pattern that eerily stamped the path of the wild tornado- no one lost their lives. People had made it to safety, the group of homeschool children meeting in the church had gone home just hours before and the prayers of many covered our lives.

    A few months later we saw that the Fernvale congregation was meeting in a barn (a really nice barn) up the road. The small church family was clinging together despite their house being gone. Then Jesus started whispering to our hearts…. And one day we knew, we had both heard God. We were supposed to go there. We perked our ears up to hear Him for sure- at the same time trying to add our own ideas into the plan. We had it figured out that we would phase our family into this new church. “We’ll do 2 weeks here at New Song and then 2 weeks at Fernvale for a couple of months” trying to be oh so logical. Which actually meant feeling safe by dipping our toes in instead of jumping all the way in.
 
When we went to church on April 2,2008 Jesus informed us of His timing and His logic. He made it quite clear that there would be no “dipping in”, this would be our last week at New Song and we were to fully jump into what He was calling us to do. It was a very powerful day. Both Micah and myself felt as if Jesus had come to church that day just to show us the way we were to go. What we did not know was that Jesus had showed up at another church as well, to powerfully turn the hearts of it’s people to the Fernvale Church.  

   That same morning the pastor of Grace Center asked the congregation to break off and pray as families, asking God for an amount that He would like them to donate, but he didn’t tell them who or what they were donating to. The church was alive with excitement as the Lord told each of them how much to give. The church of 1000 members, who are still saving up to build their own new building, dropped over $200,000 in a basket then piled into their cars to deliver it to a little church meeting in a barn 20 miles away. The amount they gave was, of course cuz it’s Jesus, the exact amount of the difference between what the insurance company was giving and the amount it was going to take to rebuild the church that was blown away. http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/cow/Grace_Center060908.aspx

<REWIND>
 On Jan 1st of that year the Lord had given me a word that I had actually stood up and shared with everyone at New Song. He said to me “This is the year that you and Micah will become one”. Even though for 4 years Micah and I had both been loving and seeking Jesus, we were not loving or seeking each other. Our walks, since coming to Jesus, had been parallel to each other- existing together only in the sense that we were standing together under our covenant, the covenant  we had made with Jesus to stay together, not because we hated the idea of our divorce but  because HE hated divorce. “I don’t like you and you don’t like me, but we both just gave our lives to Jesus and He hates divorce, so we will see what He can do with this mess we’ve made” was our covenant. What we did not know in  January was that the way He would do that would be to pull us out of our church home, and set us out alone together on a 2 year journey to get to know each other .




  We spent a year  with the Fernvale Community Church. The people there are great, we so enjoyed settling into  our community and being with neighbors. We learned a lot in that time about who we are in Christ, the call He has placed on our family, the preparation we still need and how perfectly He has made us for each other. Jesus used this temporary home as a way to re-introduce us to each other. That year we got to meet the new husband and the new wife that Jesus had been making and given both of us. That was the year that we became ONE.

 And so as we plan our reWedding  at the Fernvale Community Church we reflect on the symbolism and history it holds: being broken down to the foundation and built back up by HIM, the way Jesus is always working behind the scenes- going before and behind us and the special place it holds in our hearts as a place of drawing, growing and sealing our love for Jesus and for each other. Thank you Jesus.

is this the perfect place or what?

3 comments:

  1. Looking forward to seeing the details unfold, friend!

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  2. I'm so happy for your whole family. You've written this out so well, I can't wait to see everything as it happens.

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  3. Oh, Elizabeth, I am not doing a very good job holding back tears. It doesn't matter that I knew a little bit of the story ... to hear you tell it is so wonderful. I can't tell you right now how much I want to be able to tell some of the same things I see in your story someday, but just know that reading through it today renewed a little hope in me. I love hearing what Jesus has done! Can't wait to hear more!

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